Jury Nullification: First US State to pass a state-wide citizen-initiated referendum which mandates...

...all judges in the state must inform all defendants before trial about jury nullification and how to seek it from a jury AND then the judge must thoroughly and carefully explain jury nullification to the jury at the start and end of a trial. When the jury returns with a verdict, the first question asked by the judge is if the jury has optioned for nullification and if so, the trial is over. The referendum also prohibits the state from seeking a retrial if jury nullification is the verdict.

[Jury nullification gives juries the power to not enforce bad and/or stupid laws or unreasonably severe punishments. Currently, juries are not even informed of this option in ANY court system in the entire USA. None! And whenever a defendant has tried to use this in court, both judges and prosecutors have actively fought against it and many judges have outright prohibited it from even being presented to the jury and will stop a trial and send out the jury if a defendant tries to present such as an option to the jury. Today, there are too many victimless crimes on the law books and insanely harsh mandatory sentences passed by "tough on crime" politicians who could care less about the individual circumstances of any crime. The USA's political system is based on checks-and-balances. It is time that applied to courts by giving citizen juries a way to check bad, stupid, and too severe laws.]

Future Challenges: First radio talk show host to champion this challenge and...

1) ...enable their listeners to sign the petition by way of the show's website OR, if online petitions are not allowed in that state, request a visit by petition signature getters.

2) ...have on her/his show at least 100 citizens who the host believes could have been helped by jury nullification because they are convicted of bad, stupid, and/or insanely severe punishment laws. Each wronged citizen must be on the show for at least five minutes and their interview available for free listening on the show's website.

3) ...is the first host to get all the required signatures to put the referendum on the next election ballot in their state.

Discussion:
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